Organizing Seeds

Most gardeners this time of year are busy looking through seed catalogs and putting together plans for spring planting. I’m doing something a little different that involves no planning, instead I’m organizing seeds.

After my clean out and organizing earlier this month I came across my container of seeds and decided it was time to condense and formulate a better storage system.
I found these neat plastic containers at Tractor Supply and decided they were perfect for sorting seeds.

I started with my flower seeds and uncovered a shoe box full of sunflower seeds. I kept a few sunflowers and the others will be fed to the birds. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this sooner.

I’m a Seed Hoarder

This was my pile of seeds; I was pretty overwhelmed and realized I might have to purchase more containers to finish this project.

Look at that pile I’m embarrassed; I appear to be a seed hoarder. There will be no seed purchases this season for the vegetable garden; I need to deplete the inventory and focus on my harvested seeds in the future.

Organizing

These boxes come with dividers that you cut apart and place where needed; I added them as I went. Once I had all my flower seeds gathered it was time to grab scissors, a pen and labels.

Originally I was going to use the labels to mark the seeds on the inside of the lid but after emptying the seed packs I realized cutting the name label off from the envelopes would be faster by dropping in place with the seeds they belong to.

How do you organize your garden seeds? Do you have a similar system or have I sparked a new idea?

Next up will be my veggie seeds and I’m thinking it might be a good idea to break them into two groups, spring and fall. I enjoyed this project; it’s a great way to help establish a visual plan for the spring planting season.

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15 comments

Hi Carole, what a great idea. I also struggle with having a mess of seeds. I currently keep mine in a small box, but it's not easy to find what you want without shuffling through the whole thing. I was considering using a "photo album" organizer for seed packets, but this looks like an alternative I can really use.

That's what I did I had a small box, like a shoe box and many times the seeds would slip out and well what a mess. Hope this idea helps I'm excited about it. I'm breaking up my vegetable seeds in groups today so I can finish up. I love though that I only have one container for flowers. Let me know how it works for you.-Carole

I see these containers at the thrift store all the time. I love your method! No need to feel badly about having so many seeds. It could be worse! ;0) I have posted about how I store my seeds in a repurposed Lucite box because I like to keep the packet intact with the planting directions (I'm still a newbie gardener). This would be fabulous for flower seeds when we harvest seeds though. I have a new project in mind to harvest my milkweed seeds and start plants to sell when we give away our caterpillars. This would be perfect for that project. Thanks, Carole.

I'm glad you like this idea, I used a box too but for some reason I wanted a visual of my inventory so I stop over purchasing every year. Trying to simplify my life style – it's possible I'm taking it to the extreme. What I discovered with this project was it really simplified my garden planning. Your new project sound interesting, would love to hear more about it. -Carole

What a great idea! I am novice when it comes to gardening. We planted our first garden last fall/end of summer (we live in San Diego) and really isn't producing. But we will work on it! I love this idea! Thanks for sharing!

PS I found your link over at Creative Spark link party. I am excited to start following you and learning all your tips for my spring garden!

Hello Brittany – It's nice to have you here. Go to my Home and Garden page and find my direct composting article and I recently did one on Fertilizer. I will be doing another later this month. Fall gardens are not always as grand as spring gardens because the temperatures start dropping. It might be though your soil just needs some help. -Carole

What a good idea! I have many sandwich baggies of seeds saved from my garden… and that works fine… I label each one and they all go into a large tin…. but I like your idea. By they way, I think I must be a seed hoarder also… but not too worried about it…they last and they take up little room. 🙂 Thank you for the great idea.

Glad you liked it – I finished my organizing last weekend and I'm excited. No need to purchase anything this year. This for me really takes away the planning and forces me outdoors which is where I love to be when the weather cooperates. – Carole